What Comes After?
by Black Amber
Summary: Snape wakes up to a familiar pair of green eyes. Where is he and why is he there? Snape/Lily friendship


A/N: So this is my first venture into writing Harry Potter, however I've been a avid lurker of this fandom XD The first part of this is just Snapes death from his point of view. And I stole a line from Dumbledore in here to. Kudos if you can find it :)

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize belongs to J.K. Rowling, I own nothing

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><p>Snape knew he was going to die. From the moment Lucius had apparated to his side saying the Dark Lord had summoned him, Snape know that his time had come. The rest of his night passed by in a blur; he vaguely recalled trying to waster as much of the Dark Lord's time as possible. Then, the snake attacked and all of a sudden, Potter was leaning over him and he could feel his memories, the truth that had been denied to Potter his entire life, leaking out.<p>

"Take it...take it..." he had to convey how important it was that Potter see this memory. Snape felt rather than saw the flask and he could have sighed in relief if he wasn't suddenly floating away from his body. But no, there was one last thing he needed to do.

"Look...at...me," Snape trailed off as Potter, no, as Harry turned his head and his eyes, so very much like Lily's, met Snape's black ones. Snape finally let go and started to float away, his last thought echoing through time and space.

_Lily_.

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><p>Snape's eyes flew open to meet another pair of startling green. For a moment he thought that he was back in the Shrieking Shack, however, another look into the eyes above him and he knew he couldn't be there, not when the owner of those eyes had been dead for seventeen years.<p>

"...Lily," he whispered, his voice cracking at the end. Surely this was Hell he thought, as he took in her fiery red hair and familiar smile that he hadn't seen since that fateful day. There was no other reason why Lily would be here than to torment him with what he could not have.

"Hello Severus," Lily's smile grew wider, as though she knew something he did not.

Snape just stared at her, lost in old memories. Finally he asked the question that had been on his mind since he woke up. "Am I...in Hell?"

"No sweetheart, you're not." Lily's smile was tinged with sadness. "You're in the 'in-between lands', a sort of limbo. This is the place where the dead decide to move on or go back as a ghost."

As he mulled that over in his head, he took a look at his surroundings. From what he could see, they were on the edge of a forest. As he looked farther into the distance, Snape could make out the outline of a castle. It looked very familiar. In fact...

"Lily, why am I seeing Hogwarts Castle if I'm dead?"

Lily smiled at this. "This limbo recreates the place where the deceased is most comfortable. And apparently for you, that's the grounds of Hogwarts."

That seemed to make sense for Snape because he finally sat up after and was just opening his mouth to no doubt ask another question, when he closed it with a snap. He looked at Lily and she wasn't surprised to see tears in his eyes.

"Lily...oh, _Lily._" And with that, he fell into her open arms and, for the first time since he had vowed to protect Harry, let himself cry into her shoulder. And Lily just held him as tight as she could, knowing that this was probably the last time she would see him. Together they held each other as they had when they were children, before death eaters, before Hogwarts and before the word mudblood.

When they finally broke apart, Snape looked at Lily and with every bit of emotion he could muster said three words.

"I'm so sorry."

Lily stared at him for a moment before leaning back in for a hug. It surprised Snape when he felt his clothes dampen; he didn't think there was anyone left who would cry for him. He wrapped his arms around her and felt the air from her mouth as she answered him.

"I know and I'm sorry too."

With that she sobbed harder into his shoulder and, as he felt the tears start to stream down his face again, he hugged her harder. When they were both cried out, they took a step back from each other and gazed at the limbo Hogwarts. They stood there side by side for a long time. Surprisingly, it was Snape who broke the silence, voicing something that had been troubling him since Lily had first explained where they were.

"Why are you here?" At her startled look, he elaborated. "I mean, in this limbo. You said it was only a waiting ground right?" She nodded and he continued. "So, then why are you here? You should have moved on a long time ago!" The last bit came out as a bit of a shout which surprised the both of them. Then a horrible thought occurred to him. "You haven't been here for seventeen years, have you?"

She laughed at this, a sound that Snape had only heard in his dreams for a long time. "Goodness no! I passed on with James when we were murdered." Snape was surprised at how casually she said that but kept listening as she continued. "I've actually come back for a couple reasons, you being one of them. The other is something between my son and I."

"Po-Harry?" he quickly corrected himself. "What does he have to do with this?"

"He'll have to make a very hard and very selfless decision soon and I'm to be there with him. As will James, Sirius and Remus."

"I trust he'll be able to make the proper decision then," Snape said honestly. He stopped at this and realized that he did believe that Harry could make the right decision. He had finally accepted that Harry was more like his mother than James and that he was old enough and wise enough to make smart decisions.

"Thank you Severus, that means a lot to me," Lily cocked her head to one side as though she were listening to someone. She smiled and nodded her head, as if thanking that same someone.

"I believe it is time to make your final decision Severus." Lily looked straight at him and for the first time, he noticed that she was surrounded by a glow and, if he squinted, he could make out a small halo circling her head. As he realized this, he gave a bark of laughter. Of course Lily Evans became an angel. There was no way she couldn't have been, not after her sacrifice for her son.

Snape briefly considered becoming a ghost just to find out who won the war but dismissed it when he realized that he had no desire to wander the halls of Hogwarts and be stared at by hundreds of students. As his eyes met with Lily's, she saw his decision in them and a smile grew upon her face. As he watched her though, she lost the smile and began to glow brighter and her voice took on a note of importance as she said her next bit.

"Severus Snape, I, Lily Evans, hereby invite you to step into the light, to take your rightful place next to countless of others who have fought for good no matter the cost." With that said she lost a bit of the formalness in her voice and said in a softer tone. "And thank you for protecting Harry, even when it was the last thing you wanted to do."

Snape merely snorted at this, thinking of the many times he had wanted to hex the Potter boy to the ends of the earth and back. He was distracted from these thoughts as a small light floated in front of him. It began to expand before his eyes until it was the size of a door. It slowly opened and from inside he caught a glimpse of a cauldron and what looked like a whole room full of potion supplies. Snape was just about to take a step through, when he turned to look at Lily, who was standing there watching him with a sad smile on her face.

"What about you?" he asked. "Will I see you again?" He couldn't bear losing her so soon after he found her again.

"Perhaps," she said slowly. "It depends on whether you want to see me again. The otherworld is a large place but if it's meant to be, which I think it is, then yes. I will see you again and hopefully very soon."

Snape nodded at that, for some reason he couldn't argue with that even if it didn't make that much sense to him at the moment. He took another step towards the glowing door when he felt himself turn and throw himself at Lily. He couldn't leave until he said a proper goodbye.

"So long Severus," she whispered softly. "Until we meet again."

Snape nodded and with one final look back at her, he stepped through the door and into a whole new life.

After all, death is simply another adventure to the organized mind.

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><p>So I apologize if it sounds stupid, it was one of those plot bunny type things that strikes in the middle of the night and doesn't leave until you write it -.- So let me know what you think. If this gets any feedback or I am struck by another plot bunny I might do the other characters deaths (Tonks, Remus, Fred etc)<p> 


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